Robert Baird

Revinylization #40: Beck & Croz
Revinylization
Robert Baird  |  Mar 13, 2023  |  4 comments
Turns out rock stars are human after all. Which means music fans should prepare themselves for the coming toll. The next few years are certain to be brutal: Bob Dylan, 81; Paul Simon, 81; George Clinton, 81; Brian Wilson, 80; Carole King, 80; Keith Richards, 79; Jimmy Page, 79; Sly Stone, 79; Rod Stewart, 78; Neil Young, 77; Pete Townsend, 77, and the inexorability rolls on. The news is even worse among the pre-rock era stars, where it's a matter of any day now: Tony Bennett, 96; Burt Bacharach, 94; Sonny Rollins, 93. Even the ageless one, Willie Nelson, is 86.

January 2023 was a particularly cruel harbinger of the reckoning to come as guitar legend Jeff Beck and folk rock icon David Crosby died within eight days of each other.

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March 2023 Jazz Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Robert Baird, Thomas Conrad, Kurt Gottschalk  |  Mar 09, 2023  |  0 comments
The Necks: Travel; Arild Andersen Group: Affirmation; Ahmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at The Penthouse 1963–1964; Benjamin Lackner: Last Decade; Simona Premazzi: Wave in Gravity.
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March 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Robert Baird  |  Mar 09, 2023  |  0 comments
Margot Price: Strays, Loma Vista Records (16/44.1 WAV download; also available on CD, LP, cassette tape)
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A Funky Donald Byrd, Live from Montreux
Aural Robert
Robert Baird  |  Feb 27, 2023  |  1 comments
At this point in the vinyl revival, it's hard to believe there are many undiscovered masterpieces left that are worth discovering. Record Store Day (RSD), a much-ballyhooed source of unique and unreleased music on vinyl, has been a major spur in the drive to plumb the vaults, but even though it has an excellent reputation, most RSD unearthings have turned out to be less than essential.

The increasingly rare exceptions are to be celebrated. Here's one. Just before the year turned to 2023, on what would have been Donald Byrd's 90th birthday, a smoldering, untapped artifact surfaced after 50 years in the can.

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Recording of March 2023: Countdown to Ecstasy
Recording of the Month
Robert Baird  |  Feb 15, 2023  |  6 comments
Steely Dan: Countdown to Ecstasy
ABC/Geffen Records/UMG, Analogue Productions UHQR 0010-45 (2 LPs). 2022.
Gary Katz, Chad Kassem, prods.; Roger Nichols, Miss Natalie, Bernie Grundman, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****

They were elitist brainiacs. The lyrics were too obscure. Their rhythmic, irresistible pop confections resisted easy description. Yet their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill, was a surprise hit. The band's response? Knowing that their sales success had bought them goodwill at ABC, their record label, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker went the integrity route. They forgot about hit singles, embraced risk, and fearlessly pushed the genre envelope in the direction of saxophone breaks, funk rhythms, and bluesy explorations.

The result was Countdown to Ecstasy.

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February 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Jim Austin, Robert Baird, Phil Brett, Tom Fine, Anne E. Johnson  |  Feb 09, 2023  |  0 comments
Peggy Lee: Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota (Expanded Edition); Blancmange: Private View; Weyes Blood: And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow; Pit Pony: World to Me; Various Artists: Live Forever: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver
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Revinylization #38: At My Window by Townes Van Zandt
Revinylization
Robert Baird  |  Feb 02, 2023  |  1 comments
To be a poet is to be tormented. And singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt's demons were relentless: mental illness, addiction, willful recklessness. He constantly complicated his life and the lives of those around him. Even fans who felt lucky just to have him play their town were unwittingly drawn in, often exhilarated but occasionally aghast. Yet judged by his recordings, he was indisputably a songwriting genius—often sad and confused but gifted nonetheless. The scion of a storied and wealthy Texas clan, he was that rare artist who was compelled to create art.
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January 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Robert Baird, Phil Brett, Anne E. Johnson  |  Jan 13, 2023  |  0 comments
David Bowie: Divine Symmetry (An Alternative Journey Through Hunky Dory), Björk: Fossora and Emily Scott Robinson: Built on Bones.
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Some funky strains from Craft Recordings & Vinyl Me, Please
Aural Robert
Robert Baird  |  Jan 03, 2023  |  1 comments
It's time to address a snarky rumor, a persistent urban legend surrounding music fans who care about listening in the highest quality sound possible. It's been posited from time to time that quality gear and heavy, quiet LP pressings go better with a certain intoxicant—that you have to get high to truly have the fullest possible listening experience.
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December 2022 Jazz Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Jim Austin, Robert Baird, Thomas Conrad, Sasha Matson  |  Dec 16, 2022  |  1 comments
Ethan Philion: Meditations on Mingus, Jakob Bro, Joe Lovano: Once Around the Room: A Tribute to Paul Motian, Brother Jack McDuff: Moon Rappin', Miles Davis: That's What Happened 1982–1985 (The Bootleg Series, Vol.7), Marshall Gilkes: Cyclic Journey and Noah Garabedian: Consider the Stars Beneath Us.
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